What are you doing this Christmas?

And so this is Christmas. As I write this, I’m hiding out in my room, trying to avoid the cleaning rampage that’s happening downstairs. According to Polish tradition, it’s bad luck to start Christmas with a dirty house – and so even the tinsel on the tree is being dusted. No joke.

This is your Open Christmas post on Mamamia, your safe refuge to come and chat about what’s happening in your life this weekend. Maybe you’ve already gotten stuck into the wine and Christmas crackers. Maybe you’re slowly being driven crazy by your nosy mother-in-law. Maybe you’re super excited to catch up with your entire extended family. Maybe you just feel like you need to go to sleep right now and wake up after Boxing Day, when it’s all done and dusted. Maybe you don’t celebrate Christmas and you’re really sick of hearing about it all the time. However you’re feeling – whether you need to vent, rant, or just have a chat – we’re here for you.

For me, Christmas is the same formula every year. I don’t have extended family in Australia (whether this is a blessing or a curse, I haven’t really decided) and my immediate family is very bad with change, so it’s always just the five of us – my parents, my brother, my grandmother and myself – doing the same thing.

Apart from going to church on Christmas Eve, we’re not really allowed to leave the house from lunchtime today until late on Boxing Day unless we have a really good reason, i.e. if someone is choking on their candy cane and needs to leave in an ambulance. This is mum’s way of making sure that we actually invest in some Quality Time as a family and it worked really well when my brother and I were kids, as we had dollhouses and Lego to distract us all day.

Now? We have a big dinner and open presents on Christmas Eve, so there’s really nothing for us to do on Christmas Day except sleep in and eat turkey. We usually watch a movie together (it’s always Some Like It Hot, the only one we can ever agree on) and play board games (Cranium, which always ends in a fight because nobody wants Dad on their team – while he’s a very intelligent man, charades is not his strong point).

Someone invariably throws a tantrum by 4pm due to being cooped up in the house for too long (hint: it’s usually me) but all is forgotten over champagne and chocolate cake in the evening. Then on Boxing Day, Dad and I usually smuggle ourselves out of the house to go to the beach and watch the boats doing the Sydney to Hobart sail past.

It’s pretty unexciting. And I’m really sick of Some Like It Hot. But honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re all such busy people, and as sad as it sounds, it’s rare for us to all be able to sit down at the dinner table at the same time. That’s why Christmas is so great for a proper catch-up with those who I love most.

Plus this time last year, my beloved grandmother was in the hospital and we were all very worried she wasn’t going to make it home in time for Christmas – the fact that we don’t have a thing to worry about this year will make it extra sweet.

So, today and tomorrow, log onto Mamamia and tell us whatever you feel like telling – what you’re eating, who you’re catching up with, what presents you’re giving or receiving, what odd family traditions you have, what movies you’re watching, what kind of a mood you’re in this Christmas… We’re listening.

And if you’re bored and trying to kill some time, here’s a great gallery of celebrities in their favourite Christmas outfits.